Provo residents still mourning church's razing

PROVO — It's been more than a year since St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church was demolished with the hope its razing would make way for the local parish's new church in Orem.

But the 1.3-acre lot on 200 North and 500 West, where the Spanish mission-style building stood for 84 years, has yet to sell. The deal between the Catholic Church and Lindon-based Landmark Partners LLC, which committed to buy the property for about $1.2 million, fell apart shortly after the building's demolition. And the St. Francis of Assisi parish continues to worship in a gymnasium at 65 E. 500 North in Orem with basketball rims above their heads and hard, concrete floors to kneel on.

"It was a disappointment to us," said parish member Juliana Boerio-Goates when the congregation learned the sale wouldn't go through. "We've been waiting a long time."

And it appears the parish might have to wait a while longer for the land to sell. Tom George, a real estate broker acting as the church's agent, said he's had several groups express interest in the ground, but no serious offers.

"We're kind of at an impasse," he said.

But members of St. Francis of Assisi parish aren't the only ones who still feel a tinge of disappointment. Local residents who labored for months in an attempt to preserve the church still mourn the historic Provo building's loss, including Tom Heal, who acted as real estate consultant for Historic Provo Preservation Foundation, which spearheaded efforts to preserve the church.

"We tried to tell them, 'Don't tear the building down,"' Heal recalls saying to the Catholic Church. "But they did, and now they didn't get their money."

It appears to be a deal that left everyone involved unfulfilled.

In May 2000, St. Francis of Assisi parish moved from its Provo location — first constructed in 1923 — and moved north to Orem with the hope it would be able to sell the property to fund construction of a new church adjacent to their current place of worship, said Boerio-Goates.

Years passed, and parties interested in the old Provo church property appeared from time to time. Then, it seemed the parish's dream of a chapel with capacity for 1,200 was close to fruition when Landmark Partners approached the Catholic Church with an offer to pay $1.2 million contingent on being able to tear down the building and put up condominiums.

The Rev. Mike Sciumbato, the parish priest at the time, approached the Provo Landmarks Commission to request St. Francis be delisted from the city's landmark register — a status the parish didn't seek and didn't want in the first place. The commission voted 4-1 against delisting, and the matter went before Provo City Council on Feb. 7, 2007.